2017 is Set to Be the Hottest 3 Years on Record That Wasn’t Affected by El Nino

11/7/2017 4:06:26 PM

Tuesday, November 7, 2017 - 16:06

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has reported that temperatures in the first nine months of this year were unlikely to have been higher than 2016.

Petteri Taalas, secretary general of the WMO, said: “The past three years have all been in the top three years in terms of temperature records. This is part of a long term warming trend. We have witnessed extraordinary weather, including temperatures topping 50℃ in Asia, record-breaking hurricanes in rapid succession in the Caribbean and Atlantic reaching as far as Ireland, devastating monsoon flooding affecting many millions of people and a relentless drought in East Africa.”

He said further detailed scientific studies would be carried out, but that it was already possible to say many ‘bear the tell-tale sign of climate change’ caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities, such as burning fossil fuel and deforestation.

Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, which is hosting the Bonn conference, said, “These findings underline the rising risks to people, economies and the very fabric of life on Earth if we fail to get on track with the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement”.

“Bonn 2017 needs to be the launch pad towards the next, higher level of ambition by all nations and all sectors of society as we look to de-risk the future and maximize the opportunities from a fresh, forward-looking and sustainable development path,” she said.

This recent increase in average global temperatures confirms a renewed warming trend in recent years, which had slowed its pace slightly in the previous decade, leading some climate skeptics to claim global warming had ‘paused’.

The results were revealed to delegates at the UN’s global climate talks being held in Bonn, Germany, this week and next. The COP23 talks, a follow-up to the landmark Paris agreement of 2015, will focus on a new process by which countries’ pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions can be toughened, in line with scientific advice.